Results, Not Rhetoric

Real Affordability

It shouldn’t be so hard to get by in Austin. Everyone deserves housing they can afford and to not be pushed out by rising costs.

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Connected Communities

Every neighborhood should be vibrant, safe, and walkable. 

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Real Homeless Solutions

No matter who you are, everyone deserves the dignity of a bed, pillow, food, and a roof over their head.

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Smarter Public Safety

Safe communities don’t just respond to emergencies, they prevent them.

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A Greener Austin

Nature is in the soul of Austin. There is no replacement for clean air, fresh water, and our natural spaces.

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  • It shouldn’t be so hard to get by in Austin. Everyone deserves housing they can afford and to not be pushed out by rising costs.

    RESULTS

    • Largest rent declines in the nation

    • Greatest decrease in home prices in Texas, and top 5 nationally

    • Over 1,000 affordable housing units built in District 5

    • Saved seniors thousands by nearly doubling the senior homestead exemption

    • Strengthened tenant rights

    • Lowest energy bills in Texas market

    HOUSING FOR ALL

    Everyone who wants to live in Austin should be able to afford to live in Austin. That means building enough housing for our workers, for our seniors, for our students, and for our families. We can do this by: 

    1. Requiring deeply affordable housing to be built in exchange for increased entitlements

    2. Lowering development costs by further fixing the permitting process

    3. Modernizing our 40+ year-old development code to meet today’s housing needs

    AGING IN PLACE

    Seniors on a fixed income shouldn’t struggle to stay in their home. That’s why we’ve almost doubled the senior homestead exemption in the last 4 years from $113,000 to $204,000 – saving seniors thousands. We’ve also increased funding for programs like Meals on Wheels that support aging in place.

    We have to build on this work by: 

    1. Continuing to keep senior taxes flat through increases in the senior homestead exemption

    2. Strengthening programs that allows seniors to stay in their homes

    3. Expand our network of senior and recreation centers

    STRENGTHENING TENANT RIGHTS

    A renter must not be held hostage by their landlord. That starts with work we did to:

    1. Require fee disclosures, so no one is surprised by hidden junk fees

    2. Prevent evictions with legal support and targeted rental assistance

    3. Enforcing lease terms that protect renters

    We must build on these successes to level the playing field between renters and landlords.

  • Every neighborhood should be vibrant, safe, and walkable. 

    RESULTS

    • Added 7 miles of sidewalks and 8.2 miles of bike lanes in District 5

    • Initiated changes to allow walkable neighborhood coffee shops

    • 8 District 5 schools with safety upgrades for students walking/biking

    • 331 lane miles of District 5 roads treated

    WALK, BIKE, AND STROLL

    Neighbors can’t connect with each other if they can’t reach each other. We need to build infrastructure that: 

    1. Allows parents to stroll their kids to their local park

    2. Makes it safe to walk or bike without getting hit by cars

    3. Supports small local businesses where neighbors can gather

    VIBRANT NEIGHBORHOODS

    You shouldn’t have to get in your car to visit a neighbor, get a cup of coffee or taco, or enjoy a park. Complete connected communities should be the standard, not the exception. To do that, we should allow:

    1. Neighborhood-scale coffee and food shops

    2. Mixed-use development that integrates housing and commercial, especially in transit zones

    3. Missing-middle housing attainable to first-time homebuyers, teachers, nurses, and workers

  • No matter who you are, everyone deserves the dignity of a bed, pillow, food, and a roof over their head.

    RESULTS

    • First multi-year decline in the number people entering homelessness

    • Wait time to get housing has decreased 25%

    • More than doubled emergency shelter, rapid rehousing, and supportive housing capacity over past 5 years

    • Opening a new housing navigation center better equipped to handle this growing need

    KEEPING PEOPLE HOUSED

    The cheapest, most effective tool we have is to keep people housed. Expanding our prevention programs will allow us to serve more people with fewer dollars all while increasing outcomes. 

    ACCOUNTABILITY MATTERS

    Too often we measure success by the number of dollars we are spending, not the number of people being successfully housed. We must do better by:

    1. Investing in proven, cost-effective solutions

    2. Holding partners accountable who are not performing

    3. Working with service providers so they aren’t set up for failure

    MAINTAINING MOMENTUM

    In just the past five years we have more than doubled our shelter and housing capacity. This has allowed us to get more people off the streets and into housing than ever before. We can maintain this momentum by:

    1. Bringing 400+ shelter beds online over the next 4 years

    2. Taking advantage of high vacancy rates to get people in housing

    3. Delivering the hundreds of supportive housing units in the pipeline

  • Safe communities don’t just respond to emergencies, they prevent them.

    Results

    • 6% reduction in District 5 crime since taking office 

    • Expanded the Emergency Medical Crisis Outreach Team to 24/7

    • Long-term contracts with all three public-safety departments

    • First dedicated investment to community violence intervention to prevent crime

    • Filled vacancies across our public safety departments

    PREVENTING CRIME

    We are breaking the cycle of crime and trauma by investing in programs that stop crimes before they occur. Through the community violence intervention program, we invest in neighborhoods to address the root causes of crime and stem gun violence. Violent crime can be prevented if we continue to make smart investments in community-level programs like these. 

    ALTERNATIVE RESPONSE

    Not every emergency requires someone with a badge to show up. That’s why I have pushed aggressively for smarter emergency response that matches an emergency with the right professional. This is particularly true for emergency mental health calls, where now instead of a police officer, we utilize trained mental health professionals 24/7.

    Thinking differently about how we respond to emergencies is not only going to save lives, it’s going to save money. That’s why in the next four years we should:

    1. Expand EMS’s C4 program that replaces a costly ambulance with connections to more appropriate and effective community services

    2. Utilize non-APD personnel for non-emergency calls like crash reporting, allowing existing officers to focus on higher priorities

    3. Explore non-sworn park safety options so everyone is safe in our parks

  • Nature is in the soul of Austin. There is no replacement for clean air, fresh water, and our natural spaces.

    RESULTS

    • Championed a $50 million investment to preserve parks and open spaces

    • Added millions to better maintain our park spaces

    • Launched the largest solar on city facilities effort in the nation – saving money and increasing resilience

    • Stormwater improvements in D5

    ABUNDANT PARKS

    Imagine walking a few blocks from your front door to a park that's actually ready for you. A place where the playscapes are intact, restrooms clean, trails maintained, and enough shade for you to enjoy it all. This is what a park system built for Austin looks like: not a rare amenity across town, but a neighborhood fixture every family can walk to and count on.

    How we get there:

    1. Establish an asset renewal fund to fix our broken slides, swing sets, and other equipment

    2. Continue to grow our parks maintenance efforts

    3. Close the gap for the 35% of Austin that can’t walk to a local park

    CLIMATE-READY AUSTIN

    We are building a climate-ready Austin that can withstand the heat, storms, and growing demands on our local infrastructure. As summers grow longer and hotter and hundred-year winter storms hitting with greater frequency, we must:

    1. Increase the resiliency of our local grid through batteries, solar, and other infrastructure

    2. Lower our urban heat-island with more trees, cooler pavement, and more shade

    3. Deploy more green infrastructure to naturally mitigate local flooding

    PROTECTING NATURAL RESOURCES

    We should never worry about water coming out of the faucet or the air we breathe poisoning our bodies. That’s why I have been a fierce advocate to protect our water supply, limit pollution, and preserve green spaces from over-development. I will continue to fight for:

    1. Limits on large water users, including data centers

    2. Electrification of everything we can

    3. Strong protections for natural spaces in any new development